BP lowers US oil-spill cap, oil finds a way around?

Update: June 03, 2010 — In the above video you can see BP oil spill top hat caps well. They placed the containment dome successfully on the top of the leaking oil pipe which was cut off by giant shears earlier today. The dome now will funnel some of the oil to a containment ship on the surface. BP is hoping that hydrates will not form in the pipe which brings the oil to the surface. They are pumping methanol to the dome to prevent the pipe from getting blocked. The spill has been capped.



... capped but still blasting out oil!

...After they capped it the oil flowed around the cap and came back up. All i saw was black oil before the cap and black oil after the cap. So what is the cap supposed to do again?

...

Oil firm BP is preparing to lower a capping device on to a leaking oil well, in the second phase of its latest attempt to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

BP chief Tony Hayward said the results of the capping effort would be known on Friday. In the first phase of the effort, robots managed to cut a leaking pipe.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama said he had not seen "the kind of rapid response" he would have liked. In an interview with CNN, he said BP had already "felt his anger" over the spill.

He is due to visit the gulf on Friday - his third trip to the area since the leak began six weeks ago.

The White House has been under increasing pressure to show the administration is in control of the response and clean-up efforts. The government said it would send a $69m £47.1m bill to BP on Thursday for expenditure incurred from its response to the spill.

via BBC News - BP set to lower US oil-spill cap.

Inducing a safety memory in the brain

Researchers at the University of Puerto Rico, School of Medicine have found a way to pharmacologically induce a memory of safety in the brain of rats. As reported in the June, 4 2010 issue of Science, administering brain-derived neurotrophic factor BDNF into the prefrontal cortex prevented rats from expressing fear to a tone that had been previously paired with a shock.

... Could naturally occurring variations in brain BDNF levels explain why some individuals extinguish better than others? To address this, the researchers measured BDNF protein in rats that showed successful vs. failed extinction. Failed extinction was associated with deficient BDNF in the hippocampus, a structure that projects to ILC and is important for extinction. They further showed that augmenting BDNF in the hippocampal-ILC pathway was sufficient to induce extinction. This suggests that BDNF infused into ILC mimics the BDNF normally released from the hippocampus during extinction, serving to strengthen synaptic connection within ILC during extinction.Failure to extinguish fear is thought to contribute to anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD. People with PTSD have a smaller than normal hippocampus and ILC. "Our finding suggests that augmenting BDNF in these circuits may ameliorate PTSD and perhaps other disorders such as addictions" said Dr. Jamie Peters, the post-doctoral researcher who collaborated with Quirk on this project. The focus now is to look for ways to augment BDNF's actions in the brain, which might include anti-depressant medications and even exercise. Dr. Thomas Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which funds Quirk and Peter's research said, "This work supports the idea that medications could be developed to augment the effects of BDNF, providing opportunities for pharmaceutical treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety disorders."

via Inducing a safety memory in the brain.

Navy's drone death ray takes out targets

For years, the U.S. Navy has been pursuing a workable ray gun that could provide a leap ahead in ship self-defenses.

Now, with a series of tests of a system called the Laser Weapon System, or LaWS), it may be one step closer to that goal.

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), the service's technology development arm, announced today that LaWS had "successfully tracked, engaged, and destroyed" a drone in flight, during an over-the-water engagement at San Nicholas Island, California.

It's certainly not the first time lasers have shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle -- last year, the Air Force zapped several drones with beam weapons in a series of tests at China Lake, California, -- but this test brings an additional bit of realism -- and an extra technical challenge.

Laser beams can lose strength as they move through the moist, salty sea atmosphere above the sea, so the Navy needs directed-energy weapons that can work effectively on ships.

The LaWS is essentially a laser upgrade to the MK 15 Close In Weapon System (CIWS), a.k.a. the Phalanx gun, a radar-guided autocannon that is already installed on Navy surface combatants.

According to NAVSEA, the system tested (shown here) fired a laser through a beam director installed on a tracking mount, which in turn was controlled by a Mk 15 CIWS. That's the basically same system that controls the Phalanx.

It represents a possible next step for the Phalanx system, which is currently limited by the range of its 20mm autocannon (Raytheon, manufacturer of the Phalanx, is also marketing a missile system to replace the gun).

The Phalanx is a last line of defense against sea-skimming anti-ship missiles and hostile aircraft, but the laser wouldn't replace the gun completely.

Theoretically, directed energy weapons would increase the range of the system, but you would still have the gun as a backup if the laser fails to do the job.

via Navy's drone death ray takes out targets - CNN.com.

World military spending soars in spite of recession

At a time when governments across the world have been borrowing heavily in order to spend, it seems the defence industry has benefited more than most.

Worldwide military expenditure reached $1,531bn (£1,040bn) last year, a 5.9% rise in real terms from 2008, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).

But growth in defence spending is not a new phenomenon.

Last year, while deficits ballooned in many countries, the world spent almost 50% more on arms and military operations than it did in 2000, Sipri's yearbook reveals.

Rather than curbing spending on arms, it seems many governments have deemed it dangerous to risk job cuts in the defence sector at a time of recession.

"Many countries were increasing public spending generally in 2009, as a way of boosting demand to combat the recession," according to Sam Perlo-Freeman, head of the military expenditure project at Sipri.

"Although military spending wasn't usually a major part of the economic stimulus packages, it wasn't cut either."

"For major or intermediate powers such as the USA, China, Russia, India and Brazil, military spending represents a long-term strategic choice which they are willing to make even in hard economic times."

Smaller countries in central and eastern Europe, meanwhile, cut military spending in line with severe budget cuts across the board as they struggled to reduce their large deficits.

The US remains the biggest spender, accounting for some 54% of the total, having increased its military spending by $47bn in real terms, Sipri said.

Since 2000, the US has increased military spending by 63% in real terms, according to Sipri.

Other large countries, both developing and developed, also raised military spending last year, Sipri found.

But spending rose at a much faster rate in Asia and in islands in the Pacific Ocean, where the rate of growth was 8.4%.

And when measured as a proportion of GDP, military expenditure is greater in the Middle East than anywhere else in the world. ...

via BBC News - World military spending soars in spite of recession.

Fewer resources + more people = more war.

Can Microbes Save the Gulf Beaches?

At this point it's unclear how much of an environmental threat oil spreading from the BP spill will cause, but the federal government is mobilizing thousands of workers to prepare for the worst. They have a potential ally: microbes that have evolved an ability to break down oil that seeps from the ocean bottom. It gets devoured by a variety of bacteria, which eat it by chemically transforming its compounds into useful cellular constituents. "If it wasn't for the natural ability of bacteria to eat oil we would all be knee-deep in the stuff," says bioremediation expert Ken Lee of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Nova Scotia, Canada.

So could bugs help cleanse the gulf? A number of companies have tried to create bacteria that could break down oil on demand, but Lee and colleague Albert Venosa of the Environmental Protection Agency say that experiments have shown that novel bacteria, even if they show promise in the lab, cannot compete with bacteria already living on beaches and marshes. Experiments have shown that adding nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to the beaches can speed up the ability of natural bacteria to break down oil. "What would've taken 5 or 6 years to accomplish can occur in a single summer," says Lee.

While adding such fertilizers has worked in small scale coastal experiments in which oil was purposefully spread on wetlands, experts don't know of examples from an actual spill. The challenge with wetland marshes is that the toxicity of the oil can kill plants before the microbes have a chance to get to work on the oil. "If that happens, you can lose the whole marsh," Lee says. Workers have been trying to remove as much oil at sea as possible to reduce the amount that hits the shore. They will also need to deploy protective booms to protect the wetlands.

via Can Microbes Save the Gulf Beaches? The Challenges Are Myriad - ScienceInsider.

The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University

Scientists have been hard at work harnessing the power of microbes as an attractive source of clean energy. Now, Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University researcher Dr. Prathap Parameswaran and his colleagues have investigated a means for enhancing the efficiency of clean energy production by using specialized bacteria.

Microbial electrochemical cells or MXCs are able to use bacterial respiration as a means of liberating electrons, which can be used to generate current and make clean electricity. With minor reconfiguring such devices can also carry out electrolysis, providing a green path to hydrogen production, reducing reliance on natural gas and other fossil fuels, now used for most hydrogen manufacture.

MXCs resemble a battery, with a Mason jar-sized chamber setup for each terminal.  The bacteria are grown in the “positive” chamber (called the anode).  The research team, led by Bruce Rittmann, director of Biodesign’s Center for Environmental Biotechnology, had previously shown that the bacteria are able to live and thrive on the anode electrode, and can use waste materials as food, (the bacteria’s dietary staples include pig manure or other farm waste) to grow while transferring electrons onto the electrode to make electricity.

In a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC), like that used in the current study, the electrons produced at the anode join positiviely charged protons in the negative (cathode) chamber to form hydrogen gas. “The reactions that happen at the MEC anode are the same as for a microbial fuel cell which is used to generate electricity, “ Parameswaran says. “The final output is different depending on how we operate it.”

When the bacteria are grown in an oxygen-free, or anaerobic environment, they attach to the MXC’s anode, forming a sticky matrix of sugar and protein. In such environments, when fed with organic compounds, an efficient partnership of bacteria gets established in the biofilm anode, consisting of fermenters, hydrogen scavengers, and anode respiring bacteria (ARB). This living matrix, known as the biofilm anode, is a strong conductor, able to efficiently transfer electrons to the anode where they follow a current gradient across to the cathode side.

The present study demonstrates that the level of electron flow from the anode to the cathode can be improved by selecting for additional bacteria known as homo-acetogens,  in the anode chamber. Homo-acetogens capture the electrons from hydrogen in waste material, producing acetate, which is a very favorable electron donor for the anode bacteria.

The study shows that under favorable conditions, the anode bacteria could convert  hydrogen to current more efficiently after forming a mutual relationship or syntrophy with homo-acetogens. The team was also able to reduce the negative impact of other hydogen consuming microbes, such as methane-producing methanogens, which otherwise steal some of the available electrons in the system, thereby reducing current.  The selective inhibition of methanogens was accomplished by the adding a chemical called 2-bromoethane sulfonic acid to the adode’s microbial stew. ..

via The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University | News.

Hubble catches stars on the move

With a mass of more than 10 000 suns packed into a volume with a diameter of a mere three light-years, the massive young star cluster in the nebula NGC 3603 is one of the most compact stellar clusters in the Milky Way [1] and an ideal place to test theories for their formation.

A team of astronomers from the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg and the University of Cologne led by Wolfgang Brandner (MPIA) wanted to track the movement of the cluster's many stars. Such a study could reveal whether the stars were in the process of drifting apart, or about to settle down.

The cluster, formally known as the NGC 3603 Young Cluster, is about 20 000 light-years from the Sun which makes these measurements extraordinarily difficult. It is necessary to compare images that were made years or even decades apart. The telescope and camera used must give very sharp images and be extremely stable over long periods.

Brandner and his colleagues realised that the Hubble Space Telescope was the best for the job. They found good data in the archives for the NGC 3603 cluster from a July 1997 observing run with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), and then made their own follow-up observations in September 2007, using the same camera and the same set of filters as in the original observations. It then took the team two years of very careful analysis to extract reliable estimates for the motions of stars in the images.

Boyke Rochau (MPIA), the paper's lead author, who performed this analysis as part of his PhD work, explains: "Our measurements have a precision of 27 millionths of an arcsecond per year. This tiny angle corresponds to the apparent thickness of a human hair seen from a distance of 800 km."

In this laborious way, they were able to measure the precise speeds of more than 800 stars. About 50 were identified as foreground stars that are unrelated to the cluster, but more than 700 cluster stars of different masses and surface temperatures remained. The results for the motion of these cluster stars were surprising: this very massive star cluster has not yet settled down. Instead, the stars' velocities were independent of their mass and thus still reflect conditions from the time the cluster was formed, approximately one million years ago.

via Hubble catches stars on the move.

Meditation reduces the emotional impact of pain

People who meditate regularly find pain less unpleasant because their brains anticipate the pain less, a new study has found.

Scientists from The University of Manchester recruited individuals into the study who had a diverse range of experience with meditation, spanning anything from months to decades. It was only the more advanced meditators whose anticipation and experience of pain differed from non-meditators.

The type of meditation practised also varied across individuals, but all included 'mindfulness meditation' practices, such as those that form the basis of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), recommended for recurrent depression by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in 2004.

"Meditation is becoming increasingly popular as a way to treat chronic illness such as the pain caused by arthritis," said Dr Christopher Brown, who conducted the research. "Recently, a mental health charity called for meditation to be routinely available on the NHS to treat depression, which occurs in up to 50% of people with chronic pain. However, scientists have only just started to look into how meditation might reduce the emotional impact of pain."

The study, to be published in the journal Pain, found that particular areas of the brain were less active as meditators anticipated pain, as induced by a laser device. Those with longer meditation experience (up to 35 years) showed the least anticipation of the laser pain.

Dr Brown, who is based in Manchester's School of Translational Medicine, found that people who meditate also showed unusual activity during anticipation of pain in part of the prefrontal cortex, a brain region known to be involved in controlling attention and thought processes when potential threats are perceived.

He said: "The results of the study confirm how we suspected meditation might affect the brain. Meditation trains the brain to be more present-focused and therefore to spend less time anticipating future negative events. This may be why meditation is effective at reducing the recurrence of depression, which makes chronic pain considerably worse."

Dr Brown said the findings should encourage further research into how the brain is changed by meditation practice. He said: "Although we found that meditators anticipate pain less and find pain less unpleasant, it's not clear precisely how meditation changes brain function over time to produce these effects.

"However, the importance of developing new treatments for chronic pain is clear: 40% of people who suffer from chronic pain report inadequate management of their pain problem."

In the UK, more than 10 million adults consult their GP each year with arthritis and related conditions. The estimated annual direct cost of these conditions to health and social services is £5.7 billion.

Study co-author Professor Anthony Jones said: "One might argue that if a therapy works, then why should we care how it works? But it may be surprising to learn that the mechanisms of action of many current therapies are largely unknown, a fact that hinders the development of new treatments. Understanding how meditation works would help improve this method of treatment and help in the development of new therapies.

"There may also be some types of patient with chronic pain who benefit more from meditation-based therapies than others. If we can find out the mechanism of action of meditation for reducing pain, we may be able to screen patients in the future for deficiencies in that mechanism, allowing us to target the treatment to those people."

via Meditation reduces the emotional impact of pain.

Visual system interprets sign languages

Spanish sign language is used by over 100,000 people with hearing impairments and is made up of hundreds of signs. CVC-UAB researchers Sergio Escalera, Petia Radeva and Jordi Vitrià selected over twenty of these signs to develop a new visual interpretation system which allows deaf people to carry out consultations in the language they commonly use.

Signs can vary slightly depending on each user. Project researchers took this into account during the trials carried out with different people to help the system "become familiarised" with this variability. The signs recognised by the system were programmed to allow deaf people to maintain a basic conversation, including asking for help or directions. "For them it is a non artificial way of communicating and at the same time they can engage with people who do not speak sign language since the system translates the symbols into words in real time," Sergio Escalera said.

The hardware includes a video camera which records image sequences when it detects the presence of a user wanting to make a consultation. A computer vision and automatic learning system detects face, hand and arm movements, as well as any screen scrolling, and incorporates these into a classification system which identifies each movement with the word associated with the sign.

One of the aspects worth highlighting is the ability to adapt the system to any other sign language, since the methodology used is general. The system would only need to be reprogrammed with the signs used in that specific language. The amount of signs the system can recognise is also scalable, although researchers do admit that new data will increase the difficulty in differentiating them.

Applications such as the one developed by CVC-UAB researchers require extreme precision in the identification phase and are very difficult to configure given that the surroundings in which they will be used include changes in light and shadow, different physiognomies and speeds at which the signs are formed.

Other similar projects have been developed in the past. However, most of them failed or were not reliable enough because of the high complexity of variabilities in uncontrolled surroundings. For this project to succeed it was necessary to establish a fixed point in which individuals formed the signs and avoid having different focus points when recording.

The system was recently presented as a prototype in the final phase of a European project and researchers are already working on new project phases, such as using two cameras with the aim of recognising even more complex signs and complementing information with facial characteristics. To carry this out researchers worked in close collaboration with several members of the Catalan Federation of Deaf People, FECOSA. ...

via Visual system interprets sign languages.

Here's my idea: make very small visual recognition systems that you can train and embed into household appliances. Something like the iPhone touch screen, but you don't have to touch anything. (See Iron Man for an example.)

Nanosponge drug delivery system more effective than direct injection

When loaded with an anticancer drug, a delivery system based on a novel material called nanosponge is three to five times more effective at reducing tumor growth than direct injection.

That is the conclusion of a paper published in the June 1 issue of the journal Cancer Research.

"Effective targeted drug delivery systems have been a dream for a long time now but it has been largely frustrated by the complex chemistry that is involved," says Eva Harth, assistant professor of chemistry at Vanderbilt, who developed the nanosponge delivery system. "We have taken a significant step toward overcoming these obstacles."

The study was a collaboration between Harth's laboratory and that of Dennis E. Hallahan, a former professor of radiation oncology at Vanderbilt who is now at the Washington University School of Medicine. Corresponding authors are Harth and Roberto Diaz at Emory University, who was working in the Hallahan laboratory when the studies were done.

To visualize Harth's delivery system, imagine making tiny sponges that are about the size of a virus, filling them with a drug and attaching special chemical "linkers" that bond preferentially to a feature found only on the surface of tumor cells and then injecting them into the body. The tiny sponges circulate around the body until they encounter the surface of a tumor cell where they stick on the surface (or are sucked into the cell) and begin releasing their potent cargo in a controllable and predictable fashion.

Targeted delivery systems of this type have several basic advantages: Because the drug is released at the tumor instead of circulating widely through the body, it should be more effective for a given dosage. It should also have fewer harmful side effects because smaller amounts of the drug come into contact with healthy tissue.

"We call the material nanosponge, but it is really more like a three-dimensional network or scaffold," says Harth. The backbone is a long length of polyester. It is mixed in solution with small molecules called cross-linkers that act like tiny grappling hooks to fasten different parts of the polymer together. The net effect is to form spherically shaped particles filled with cavities where drug molecules can be stored. The polyester is biodegradable, so it breaks down gradually in the body. As it does, it releases the drug it is carrying in a predictable fashion.

"Predictable release is one of the major advantages of this system compared to other nanoparticle delivery systems under development," says Harth. When they reach their target, many other systems unload most of their drug in a rapid and uncontrollable fashion. This is called the burst effect and makes it difficult to determine effective dosage levels.

Another major advantage is that the nanosponge particles are soluble in water. Encapsulating the anti-cancer drug in the nanosponge allows the use of hydrophobic drugs that do not dissolve readily in water. Currently, these drugs must be mixed with another chemical, called an adjuvant reagent, that reduces the efficacy of the drug and can have adverse side-effects. ...

via Nanosponge drug delivery system more effective than direct injection.

Military develops multi-purpose 'green' decontaminants for terrorist attack sites

Chemists with the United States military have developed a set of ultra-strength cleaners that could be used in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. The new formulas are tough enough to get rid of nerve gas, mustard gas, radioactive isotopes, and anthrax. But they are also non-toxic, based on ingredients found in foods, cosmetics, and other consumer products. A detailed evaluation of the cleansers appears in ACS' Industrial Engineering and Chemistry Research, a bi-monthly journal.

George Wagner and colleagues explained that chlorine- and lye-based decontamination agents have serious drawbacks. In addition to being potentially hazardous, they can react with chemical weapons and materials in the environment to form new toxic substances. If the military needed to decontaminate a large area, the runoff could harm people and the environment. To solve that problem, military scientists developed the Decon Green suite of decontamination agents. The main ingredients in each Decon Green formula are peroxides, the same substances that are in many household cleaners and whitening toothpaste. To bolster their effectiveness, the peroxides are mixed with bicarbonates or other non-toxic bases. That combination produces peroxyanions, highly reactive ions that can clean just about anything. It ensures that chemical weapons, like nerve gas, will break down completely.

Wagner describes putting the new cleaning agents through an exhaustive battery of tests. His team concluded that each formula can break down toxic chemicals, rather than just washing them away. They also showed that Decon Green is quite good at killing anthrax spores, and removing radioactive cesium and cobalt from smooth surfaces. One of the formulas that they tested can work in sub-zero temperatures. Another is a powder, which can be easily transported and mixed with water at the scene of an emergency. All but one of the ingredients in liquid Decon Green can be found in food, cosmetics, hygiene products, or vitamin pills.

via Military develops multi-purpose 'green' decontaminants for terrorist attack sites.

First paper 'dipstick' test for determining blood type

Scientists are reporting development of the first "dipstick" test for instantly determining a person's blood type at a cost of just a few pennies. Their study on the test, which involves placing a drop of blood on a specially treated paper strip, appears in ACS' semi-monthly journal Analytical Chemistry, where the authors say it could be a boon to health care in developing countries. The test also could be useful in veterinary medicine, for typing animals' blood in the field, they note.

Gil Garnier and colleagues explain that determining a patient's blood type is critical for successful blood transfusions, which save millions of lives each year worldwide. There are four main blood types: A, B, AB, and O. Use of the wrong blood type in a patient can be fatal. Current methods for determining blood type require the use of sophisticated instruments that are not available in many poor parts of the world. An inexpensive portable test could solve that problem.

The scientists describe development of prototype paper test strips impregnated with antibodies to the antigens on red blood cells that determine blood type. In lab tests using blood samples from human volunteers, the scientists showed that a drop of blood placed on the strip caused a color change that indicated blood type. The results were as accurate as conventional blood typing. "The paper diagnostics manufacturing cost is a few pennies per test and can promote health in developing countries," the report notes.

via First paper 'dipstick' test for determining blood type.

New evidence that chili pepper ingredient fights fat

Scientists are reporting new evidence that capsaicin, the stuff that gives chili peppers their kick, may cause weight loss and fight fat buildup by triggering certain beneficial protein changes in the body. Their study, which could lead to new treatments for obesity, appears in ACS' monthly Journal of Proteome Research.

Jong Won Yun and colleagues point out that obesity is a major public health threat worldwide, linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and other health problems. Laboratory studies have hinted that capsaicin may help fight obesity by decreasing calorie intake, shrinking fat tissue, and lowering fat levels in the blood. Nobody, however, knows exactly how capsaicin might trigger such beneficial effects.

In an effort to find out, the scientists fed high-fat diets with or without capsaicin to lab rats used to study obesity. The capsaicin-treated rats lost 8 percent of their body weight and showed changes in levels of at least 20 key proteins found in fat. The altered proteins work to break down fats. "These changes provide valuable new molecular insights into the mechanism of the antiobesity effects of capsaicin," the scientists say.

via New evidence that chili pepper ingredient fights fat.

Scientists capture secret dance of electrons that causes them to change form

Scientists have captured the first images of electrons that appear to take on extraordinary mass under certain extreme conditions, thus solving a 25-year mystery about how electrons behave in metals. The discovery could help with the design of new materials for high-temperature superconductors.

The findings by scientists from McMaster University, Cornell University, the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven and Los Alamos National Laboratories, are published in the current issue of Nature.

"When electrons interact in materials unpredictable things can happen," says Graeme Luke, professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at McMaster University. "Heavy fermion behavior—where electrons behave as if they weigh 1,000 times or more their actual mass—is one of the most fascinating examples of these phenomena. In this case, they were doing a kind of wave-like dance that changes the form and very nature of the electrons."

Using properties in a crystal composed of uranium, ruthenium and silicon— synthesized by doctoral candidate Travis Williams and staff member Jim Garrett in Luke's group using the facilities of the Centre for Crystal Growth at McMaster's Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research — the effects of heavy fermions began to appear as the material was cooled below 55 Kelvin (-218 °C). But an even more unusual electronic phase transition occurred below 17.5K.

Using a technique developed specifically for their experiment known as spectroscopic imaging scanning tunneling microscopy (SI-STM), the team was able to track the arrangement and interactions of electrons in the crystals, and watch how they react at different temperatures and see what happens when they passed through the mysterious phase transition.

"For 25 years we have known that there's a phase transition occurring in this material but we've never been able to identify what kind of order was occurring. It wasn't magnetic order or superconductivity," says Luke. "We didn't know if it was related to the way electrons were behaving in a group or whether it was the result of interactions between individual electrons and uranium atoms. The microscope, however, allowed us to actually see a change in the microscopic electron states."

"Imagine flying over a body of water where standing waves are moving up and down, but not propagating toward the shore," said study leader Séamus Davis, a physicist at Brookhaven and the J.D. White Distinguished Professor of Physical Sciences at Cornell University. "When you pass over high points, you can touch the water; over low points, you can't. This is similar to what our microscope does. It images how many electrons can jump to the tip of our probe at every point on the surface."

Based on these wavelength and energy measurements, scientists can calculate the effective electron mass for specific electron bands.

The researchers are continuing to probe a variety of related compounds with this new approach to further their understanding of heavy fermion systems.

via Scientists capture secret dance of electrons that causes them to change form.

Sun-induced skin cancer: new discovery permits doctors to assess genetic risk

In the future, summer sun may never be viewed the same way again: New research in the FASEB Journal will help doctors predict your likelihood to develop skin cancer, and promises next-generation sunscreens

As people head to the beach this summer, very few if any, really know how likely they are to develop skin cancer from their outdoor fun. That's about to change, thanks to a new discovery by an international team of scientists that makes it possible for doctors to access people's personal risk for skin cancer.

In a new research report appearing online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), these researchers describe for the first time the chain of molecular events that increase one's risk of skin cancer. This discovery may lead to new tests that access personal skin cancer risk as well as a new generation of sunscreens that increase the skin's ability to protect itself from the sun's damaging rays.

"Our study heralds the onset of personalized medicine for individuals who carry a change in the MC1R gene," said Zalfa A. Abdel-Malek, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Department of Dermatology at the University of Cincinnati. "The data we have obtained allows us to better predict which individuals will be at risk for skin cancer, as well as potentially why and to what degree. In the future, genetic testing for MC1R gene changes may be clinically available so that individuals can be made aware of the molecular basis of their risk prior to development of cancer."

Abdel-Malek and colleagues found that when a pigmentation gene called the "melanocortin 1 receptor" or MC1R does not function properly, skin cells do not respond to a hormone, called α-MSH, which causes cells to produce dark pigmentation to protect themselves from ultraviolet rays. To make this discovery, the researchers studied 21 human skin cell cultures that express the MC1R gene in different ways. Each culture was studied for expression of genetic changes of MC1R, pigment levels and the ability to respond to α-MSH. The researchers also exposed the cell cultures to ultraviolet rays and measured the amount of DNA damage and the rate of its repair, as well as the percent of surviving melanocytes. Then the scientists inserted a normal version of the MC1R gene into the skin cells and found that they responded properly to ultraviolet light by producing the pigment necessary to protect themselves. These results give researchers testable strategies to reduce or prevent skin cancer. The results also suggest that it may be possible to develop drugs or a new generation of sunscreens that restore the lost function of MC1R. ...

via Sun-induced skin cancer: new discovery permits doctors to assess genetic risk.

Probiotic found in breast milk helps alleviate symptoms of digestive disorders

Here's another reason to breast feed your baby: Canadian researchers have discovered how a probiotic found in breastmilk reduces or eliminates painful cramping in the gut. In a new research report published online in the FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), these scientists use mice to show that a specific strain of Lactobacillus reuteri decreases the force of muscle contractions in the gut within minutes of exposure. This bacterium naturally occurs in the gut of many mammals and can be found in human breast milk. This discovery suggests that increasing the intake of this bacterium may help alleviate symptoms of a wide range of gut disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, functional bowel disorders, and constipation.

"Scientifically and evidence-based approaches to nutrition to correct potential bacterial imbalance in the intestine and thereby promote better health and possibly restore health in diseases associated with these imbalances," said Wolfgang Kunze, a researcher involved in the work from the McMaster Brain-Body Institute and Department of Psychiatry at St. Joseph's Healthcare in Ontario, Canada.

To make this discovery, Kunze and colleagues, introduced Lactobacillus reuteri into isolated pieces of small intestine taken from healthy and previously untreated mice. The bacterium was added to a warm salt solution flowing through the lumen, or hollow part, of the intestine and the pressure caused by natural contractions was measured before, during and after adding the bacterium. Relaxation of smooth muscle tissue was compared with the action of the bacterium. Researchers also tested the electrical activity of single intestinal sensory nerve cells.

"It might not be possible for most of us to get breast milk from the tap," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal, "but we can still benefit from some of the life-supporting substances it carries.This research shows that the relationship between humans and microbes can be beneficial for both. The Lactobacillus finds a new home, and we're no longer up tight."

via Probiotic found in breast milk helps alleviate symptoms of digestive disorders.

Tobacco tax hike could curb smoking among those with alcohol, drug or mental disorders

A new study from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA suggests that increasing cigarette taxes could be an effective way to reduce smoking among individuals with alcohol, drug or mental disorders.

The study, published online in the American Journal of Public Health, found that a 10 percent increase in cigarette pricing resulted in an 18.2 percent decline in smoking among people in these groups.

The findings demonstrate that increasing cigarette taxes could be a way to curb smoking, which is still the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, according to the study's lead author, Dr. Michael Ong, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the Geffen School of Medicine.

"Whatever we can do to reduce smoking is critical to the health of the U.S.," said Ong, who is also a researcher at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center. "Cigarette taxes are used as a key policy instrument to get people to quit smoking, so understanding whether people will really quit is important. Individuals with alcohol, drug or mental disorders comprise 40 percent of remaining smokers, and there is little literature on how to help these people quit smoking."

Prior research on the effect of cigarette pricing on smoking, which had been conducted using information from 1991, suggested that individuals with mental illness were less likely than other individuals to quit due to price increases. Unlike that research, however, the current study expanded the research to include people with alcohol and drug disorders.

via Tobacco tax hike could curb smoking among those with alcohol, drug or mental disorders.

'Dirty dozen' produce carries more pesticide residue, group says

If you're eating non-organic celery today, you may be ingesting 67 pesticides with it, according to a new report from the Environmental Working Group.

The group, a nonprofit focused on public health, scoured nearly 100,000 produce pesticide reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to determine what fruits and vegetables we eat have the highest, and lowest, amounts of chemical residue.

Most alarming are the fruits and vegetables dubbed the "Dirty Dozen," which contain 47 to 67 pesticides per serving. These foods are believed to be most susceptible because they have soft skin that tends to absorb more pesticides.

"It's critical people know what they are consuming," the Environmental Working Group's Amy Rosenthal said. "The list is based on pesticide tests conducted after the produce was washed with USDA high-power pressure water system. The numbers reflect the closest thing to what consumers are buying at the store."

Special report: Toxic America

The group suggests limiting consumption of pesticides by purchasing organic for the 12 fruits and vegetables.

"You can reduce your exposure to pesticides by up to 80 percent by buying the organic version of the Dirty Dozen," Rosenthal said.

The Dirty Dozen:

Celery, Peaches, Strawberries, Apples, Domestic blueberries, Nectarines, Sweet bell peppers, "Spinach, kale and collard greens", Cherries, Potatoes, Imported grapes & Lettuce

Not all non-organic fruits and vegetables have a high pesticide level. Some produce has a strong outer layer that provides a defense against pesticide contamination. The group found a number of non-organic fruits and vegetables dubbed the "Clean 15" that contained little to no pesticides.

The Clean 15:

Onions, Avocados, Sweet corn, Pineapples, Mango, Sweet peas, Asparagus, Kiwi fruit, Cabbage, Eggplant, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Grapefruit, Sweet potatoes, Sweet onions

...

Can pesticides be washed away?

Not necessarily. The pesticide tests mentioned above were conducted after the food had been power-washed by the USDA. Also, although some pesticides are found on the surface of foods, other pesticides may be taken up through the roots and into the plant and cannot be removed.

"We've found that washing doesn't do much," Rosenthal said. "Peeling can help, although you have to take into account that the pesticides are in the water, so they can be inside the fruit because of the soil."

All fresh produce, whether it's grown with or without pesticides, should be washed with water to remove dirt and potentially harmful bacteria. And health experts agree that when it comes to the Dirty Dozen list, choose organic if it's available.

"To the extent you can afford to do so, [parents] should simply buy organic, because there have been some very good studies that shows people who eat mostly organic food reduce 95 percent of pesticides [in their body] in two weeks," Landrigan said.

via 'Dirty dozen' produce carries more pesticide residue, group says - CNN.com.

Solar Cells on the Moon? Meet the Luna Ring

Japanese construction firm Shimizu Corporation has developed a series of bold architectural plans for the world of tomorrow. Here is a preview of seven mega-projects that have the potential to reshape life on (and off) Earth in the coming decades.

* * * * *

Luna Ring

In response to the ever-growing demand for energy, Shimizu has developed plans for the Luna Ring, a project that seeks to transform the Moon into a massive solar power plant.

Electricity collected by the Luna Ring’s enormous “solar belt” is relayed to power conversion facilities located on the near side of the Moon. There, the electricity is converted into powerful microwaves and lasers, which are beamed at Earth. Terrestrial power stations receive the energy beams and convert them back to electricity.

The solar power plant is built mainly using lunar resources. Moon rocks and dust are used to manufacture building materials such as cement, bricks and glass fibers. Water is produced through a chemical process involving lunar soil and hydrogen.

Large machinery and equipment from Earth is assembled in space and landed on the lunar surface for installation. Much of the construction is performed by robots controlled by people on Earth, and a team of human astronauts is stationed on the Moon to supervise the robot operations. ...

1. Lunar solar cells

To ensure continuous generation of power, an array of solar cells will extend like a belt along the entire 11,000km lunar equator. This belt will grow in width from a few kilometers to 400km.

2. Electric power cables

The cables will transfer the electric power from the lunar solar cells to the transmission facilities.

3. Microwave power transmission antennas

The 20km-diameter antennas will transmit power to the receiving rectennas. A guidance beacon (radio beacon) brought from the Earth will be used to ensure accurate transmission.

4. Laser power transmission facilities

High-energy-density laser will be beamed to the receiving facilities. A guidance beacon (radio beacon) brought from the Earth will be used to ensure accurate transmission.

5. Transportation route along the lunar equator

Materials needed for the construction and maintenance of the Solar Belt will be transported along this route. Electric power cables will be installed under the transportation route.

6. Solar cell production plants

The plants will move automatically while producing solar cells from lunar resources and installing them.

[More]

via Futuristic mega-projects by Shimizu ::: Pink Tentacle.

Witness to the Battle of LA recounts experience

“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,” says Stephen Hawking, in the new Discovery Channel series Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking. “The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.” Hawking is the author of the 1988 best-seller A Brief History of Time.

“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet,” he says. “I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.”

But trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky,” he says. “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

But maybe Hawking is being a little simple—or hasn’t seen Avatar. Regardless, Lord Martin Rees begs to differ with the world’s most famous theoretical physicist. ...

Rees, president of the Royal Society, which celebrated its 350th anniversary this year, said: “I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive. Just as a chimpanzee can’t understand quantum theory, it could be there are aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains. They could be staring us in the face and we just don’t recognize them. The problem is that we’re looking for something very much like us, assuming that they at least have something like the same mathematics and technology.”

So, what’s up with all this talk about aliens? Scott Littleton, an expert on Arthurian legend and professor emeritus of anthropology at Occidental College in Los Angeles, has some answers.

You were eight years old and growing up in Hermosa Beach, when, in the early hours of Feb. 25, 1942, you witnessed what came to be known as the “Battle of Los Angeles.” What happened?

First, remember, this was soon after Pearl Harbor, and two days after the Elwood Oil installation off Santa Barbara had been shelled by a Japanese submarine that had surfaced there. Anyway, I’m sleeping, when suddenly I heard the anti-aircraft guns going. This was about 3:15 a.m. I noticed the sky was very bright, so I look out the window and I see searchlight beams and shells exploding overhead. Something crazy was going on. My father said, “I better see what is going on, this might be the real thing.” So he threw on his air warden gear and went out. My father soon ran back in and says, “Everybody get down in the bomb shelter.” So we all go into the basement, in these old cramped quarters. And my mother was there for about 30 seconds, then she hustles out this little door and I snuck out behind her and we saw practically overhead—and I swear to this day it was hovering—this lozenge-shaped object like an elongated silver bug directly overhead. And outlined by seven or eight searchlight beams. They had it pinpointed. But it was glowing in addition to the searchlight beams. And it was surrounded by exploding shells that were falling on the beach.

How long did you and your mother observe this thing?

We were outside for ten minutes or so. It was hovering directly overhead. Then it began to lose altitude and veered inland over Rodando Beach and we lost sight of it.

If, as some people have suggested, it was a barrage balloon that had drifted, these anti-aircraft shells would have torn it to pieces. My guess is that it was surrounded by a forcefield of some sort that protected it—like something out of Star Wars.

How long did it take you to start thinking of it as a UFO and not just an unexplained phenomenon?

Decades. Not until the late ’70s. Afterwards, Frank Knox, the secretary of the Navy, held a press conference and said it was a “false alarm” due to “war nerves.” To this day that is the official interpretation. [Editors note: A Long Beach Independent editorial put it this way:”There is a mysterious reticence about the whole affair and it appears that some form of censorship is trying to halt discussion on the matter.”] ...

via Aliens Like Us -- In These Times.